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The Dust Bowl
“Tractored Out”
With farm prices low in both the 1920s and 1930s, small family farms found it difficult to survive, even before the Dust Storms of the 1930s. Many of these small farmers were “tractored out” by large corporate farms who had the capital to operate on the scale necessary to make profits.
The Grapes of WrathJohn Steinbeck
“You jus’ goin’ wes’?”
“Jus’ on our way.”
“You ain’t never been in California?”
“No, we ain’t.”
“Well, don’t take my word for it. Go see for yourself.”
“Yeah,” Tom said, “but a fella likes to know what he’s getting’ into.”
“…People gonna have a look in their eye. They gonna look at you an’ their faces says ‘I don’t like you, you son-of-a-bitch.’ Gonna be deputy sheriffs, an’ they’ll push you aroun’’… They hate you cause they’re scairt. They know a hungry fella gonna get food even if he got to take it. They know that fallow lan’ a som am’ somebody’ gonna take it. What the hell! You never been called ‘Okie’ yet.”
Tom said, “Okie? What’s that?”
“Well Okie use’ ta mean you was from Oklahoma. How it means you’re a dirty son-of-a-bitch. Okie means you’re skum.”
Steinbeck’s book portrayed migrants sympathetically. It’s outcome also implied that the frustration felt by many unemployed migrants, if allowed to continue to build, might eventually lead to class warfare.
Dorothea Lange
Lange and other photographers were
employed by the Farm Security Administration to
document living conditions among the migrant workers who
were forced to abandon their farms in the Dust
Bowl. They helped make Americans more
sympathetic to the plight of “Okies” and other
migrants.
New Aid to FarmersDuring the New Deal, a number of programs provided aid to farmers. The Agricultural Adjustment Act (AAA) tried to help raise farm prices by providing subsidies for farmers who did not produce to full capacity.
The Resettlement Administration and the Farm Security Administration launched programs designed to help poor farmers in the Dust Bowl.Farmers receive government subsidies.
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Benton,Benton,19361936
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